Episode 38: Winter Salad

This week’s episode was filmed at Dragsmith Farms. Along with the usual vegetables (organic), Gale and Maurice Smith produce microgreens all year round. Although not the most sustainable of foods, the greens taste something special when you haven’t seen one in a while. I also show you a recipe for delicata squash salad.

6 thoughts on “Episode 38: Winter Salad”

I have a bit of a problem with the concept. I'm a believer in winter root slaws, forced root veg greens, and windowsill sprouts as the real solution to the winter salad problem – and highly believe in doing without off-season, which only enhances your enjoyment of seasonal veg. But I get it. There's demand, and at least folks like this are doing it well as can be done given our climate and cultural expectation for all-season-cuisine.

Yeah, its a bit of a survival thing, until they can get the money to make it work in a more sustainable way. One of my early episodes (#3), I went to a greenhouse where they weren't using any natural gas which is pretty awesome. Anyways, I hear what you are saying, but I thought it was worth covering.

It can be sustainable…I'm doing it, in an urban home with a avg. house and backyard. Sunflower sprouts grown in a sunny kitchen, on the table in about an inch of veg fluffy garden soil. Those grow in any flat tray. I use old 13×9 cake pan, reuseable. They sprout really fast. When they get about 3", clip and use tops in salad. Pick out the hulls stuck to the tops of sprouts, drop them back into tray. That makes 2 or 3 nights of salad. But you can use them over the course of 1-2 weeks. Stick them under the table they slow down, top of the table is warmer, brighter, and they go faster. When the flat is used I turn it upside down on top of the netting over the three backyard chickens. They welcome the greens in the cold and pull apart the leftover stems pulling the soil and roots into their enclosure. They are surrounded by straw bales which are the walls of their enclosure, one end is their double decker straw bale roost/nest for night. The city chicks live in the middle of the veg garden. The soil goes back where it came from. And after the sprout roots go through the chicken, they deposit back into the soil from which they came. That spot in the veg garden gets fertilized during it's stay there then I occasionally move their enclosure over about 4-6 feet. Especially now when not much in the garden isn't frozen. It makes food and completes the circle. And when it warms up, there are eggs. Twenty five years ago Whole Foods had sunflower sprouts all the time. Now I have to grow them myself. That's what started it. Veggie phobic husband will not touch cabbage or lettuce, but he will eat sunflower sprouts. 🙂 Thanks for another great Perrenial Plate! Keeps em' coming kid! We'll be watchin'!

Wish you had started the episode with you outside eating a salad in the snow. Otherwise great message and tasty salad. What about the cost breakdown for this type of organic stuff in the winter? No double insulated greenhouses – sounds like a pretty polluted salad.

Actually, someone who watches the show sent me a salad spinner! not much use until spring, but still great. Its hard to make a balance of farm/cooking/lengthe/info/entertainment… every episode is a struggle in that regard. I usually show it to some people before each episode and gage boredom levels. Thanks for watching!